June 21, 2012 – Stephen P. Groff is Vice President for East Asia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific at the ADB in Manila and is a keynote speaker at the June 25 first annual Impact Forum organized in Singapore by IIX Asia and Impact Investment Shujog. Read more here.

“Private bankers are becoming irrelevant,” Durreen Shahnaz, founder, Impact Investment Exchange (IIX) boldly says, because she believes Asian investors, yield-oriented though they may be, want more out of their wealth managers. “They are out of touch with their client needs and wants.”

In 2012, IIX and Shujog encourage you to empower yourself to create change, starting with the strongest weapon in your arsenal: YOU! IIX and Shujog are launching the I-Factor Campaign this January, a movement that asks each person “What is your I-Factor?”.

It starts with a simple online test, helping you understand your strengths when it comes to contributing to social good, and harnessing them towards ACTION and EDUCATION. Once you ascertain your I-Factor, that’s when the real fun begins and we start connecting you with amazing people and ideas that are happening online and in your community.

Everyone has a role to play in the quest to making the world just a little bit better. Take the I-Factor test to find out your strengths in this mission and how they can be empowered for positive global change.

Take the I-Factor test today and start amplifying YOUR individual impact. 2012 is about making the leap. Start here!

IIX and our Managing Director Robert Kraybill were featured in an article about social stock exchanges in Inside Investor Relations this weekend:

“Social stock exchanges can make the world a better place, which goes back to what I thought capital markets should be doing all along,’ says Kraybill, managing director of Impact Investment Exchange Asia (IIX).”

Read the full article here and keep an eye out for the print edition due in February.

IIX and Shujog held a successful and informative Impact Chat in conjunction with UBS on Tuesday, January 17, 2012 in Singapore on the topic of “Changing Investment Philosophies of Impact Investors: How Foundations and Banks are participating in the paradigm shift in Impact Investing.” Attendees heard comments on impact investing from Alex Friedman, Chief Investment Officer for UBS Wealth Management, and David Evans, UBS Head of Philanthropy & Values Based Investing, Asia Pacific, along with Durreen Shahnaz, Founder and Chairwoman of IIX, and Robert Kraybill, Managing Director of IIX.

After opening remarks by David and a compelling introduction by Durreen, Alex and Robert sat down for a lively conversation on the state of impact investing and the evolving approaches that foundations and banks, among others, are taking to this emerging asset class – a topic to which Alex brought a unique perspective based on his current role at UBS and his former role as Chief Financial Officer of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Our audience, which included old friends as well as new, was treated to a first person account of the Gates Foundation’s historic decision to begin committing a portion of its endowment to impact investments. Alex also shared insights from some of the impact investments that the foundation undertook under his watch, including a guarantee of a pioneering bond offering by charter school operator Kipp Academy, which helped to catalyze private sector investment into this innovative section of the education market. Alex also shared his motivations for joining UBS and discussed the bank’s decision to devote significant resources to impact investment.

A lively Q&A included discussions of the importance of impact measurement to the development of the impact investment market, how investors think about the cost of capital when making impact investments, and the estimated potential of impact investing assets to grow to $1 trillion in the next 5 years and what it will take to reach this potential.

IIX was mentioned in an Institutional Investor article about impact investing infrastructure on January 5, 2012.

“A few shops have set out to build [impact investing] infrastructure. In March 2011, Singapore-based Impact Investment Exchange Asia (IIX), run by former Morgan Stanley colleagues Robert Kraybill and Durreen Shahnaz, launched a platform called Impact Partners. For an annual subscription fee, Impact Partners gives investors information about social enterprises throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Chosen for their financial viability and their social or environmental impact, the enterprises featured on the platform focus on everything from microfinance to fair trade to sustainable agriculture.”

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has just published Impact Investment Shujog’s research on Impact Investors in Asia. Shujog was contracted as a consultant by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to conduct research on current and future Impact Investor behavior in Asia. The paper, titled “Impact Investors in Asia: Characteristics and Preferences for Investing in Social Enterprises in Asia and the Pacific” was conducted as a part of ADB’s Regional Technical Assistance (RETA) #7549 and is available here.